The United States, realising it cannot defeat global threats like terrorism alone, must cooperate to fight other planetary challenges like climate change, Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.

“Interdependence is no longer disputed,” said Blair, speaking to a forum of business and political leaders on Wednesday. “If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too.”

President George W. Bush’s inauguration speech last week showed the United States realised it could not defeat terror threats just by military means or on its own, said Blair, one of the US leader’s staunchest allies.

Defending the speech, which was accused of not reflecting the reality of US policies, Blair said its support for extending democracy and liberty “emphatically puts defeating the causes of terrorism alongside defeating the terrorists.” Blair said after international divisions over the war in Iraq, there was “a wish to re-unify.” He has predicted Bush’s second term would see more account taken of the views of Europe, which the president visits next month on a fence-mending trip.

There was common purpose in fighting global terrorism, extending democracy and seeking peace in the Middle East, said Blair, stressing that those issues and his agenda for this year’s Group of Eight presidency could not be decoupled. Blair wants to focus British leadership of the G8 group of leading industrialised nations on relieving poverty and disease in Africa and on combating climate change.

But the Bush administration has little enthusiasm for mandatory action to tackle the warming of the planet. It has refused to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on cutting emissions thought to cause global warming, arguing it would cost US jobs and unfairly burden developed states while imposing no obligation on poorer polluting states such as China and India.

A broad belief in Europe that scientists have proved global warming is a reality is not so widely shared in the United States. The evidence of climate change had been clearly and persuasively advocated by a very large number of entirely independent and compelling voices, said Blair. “The majority is not always right. But they deserve to be listened to.”

Blair used his speech to repeat his call for more aid for Africa, faster debt relief, imaginative financing of help for the continent and a dismantling of unfair trade barriers.

He spoke on a panel on Africa yesterday with rock star Bono, South African President Thabo Mbeki, Microsoft chief Bill Gates and former US president Bill Clinton.

<B>Sean Maguire</B>